Dirtyradio: Is it under threat?

[stimpee]

http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/ne...07/index.shtml

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).

How does this affect small webcasters?
Webcasters who stream through services like Live365 may be in jeopardy, as such firms' business models probably never envisioned a royalty rate this high. (Live365's royalty obligation for 2006 is running in the range of $350,000 per month, and that's not even addressing the question of the $500 per station mininum!)

Is this the end of Internet radio?
Although this is undeniably a huge victory for the legal departments of record labels (or at least for the lawyers at their industry trade association, the RIAA), I doubt that the heads of the record labels and their marketing executives actually want to see Internet radio driven out of business. (This may be a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.")

[patrick]

i know. this is VERY scary. I would be devistated. I think they realize that the future is going to be very different than their past radio programs filled with commercials the like... Once we get wifi-max in cities and we can internet radio to our cars the labels will be very scared (as the content is done by ... scott... instead of by media companies who own the radio stations who are willing to give shit music high play to peak interest in certains tracks and the like...

Anyways, I don't know if it will go through or not, but if it does, it does sound like a lot of the radio will have to go offshore to some data haven or shut down...

[Rog]

Back to the good old bad old days of pirate stations maybe?

This is bad news as internet radio is the only decent radio worth listening to.

[Eikman]

the discussion is not really new, it has been going on for a couple of years now. basically, everyone streaming (copyrighted) music from his pc to an audience has to pay for it. theoretically.

[patrick]

ya, but they want to increase the price enormously (again) and it would effectively price them completely out of the market... right now, it (i think) is fairly affordable...

if i recall, somafm will have to pay something like 22 million a year for it's 9 stations... whereas FM stations pay significantly less than that, as they can be controlled for the most part

[Scott Warner]

*shrug*

There's a few major label artists in the library but for the most part our library is made up of independents and bedroom composers. I've received nice emails from larger indie labels like Warp and Soma and all kinds of "PLEASE PLAY MY MUSIC" emails from smaller labels and artists. I don't think we'll ever run into a problem.

Ironically, until recently the former head of Warner Music Publishing was sitting about fifty feet away from me.

[Eikman]

Originally Posted by Scott Warner

I've received nice emails from larger indie labels like Warp and Soma and all kinds of "PLEASE PLAY MY MUSIC" emails from smaller labels and artists. I don't think we'll ever run into a problem.

what do they think about palying leaked material?

[Scott Warner]

what do they think about palying leaked material?

I dunno, although I imagine they have far less issues with music played before release dates at 96k than people downloading the mp3s at 320. I mean, what dinosaur is out there these days that doesn't understand the reality of modern music distribution in light of the Internet these days?

Look, the short answer from my perspective is "I don't care". It's a simple operation that I've run for almost a decade simply because I like music. The moment it gets more complicated than it is now I'll simply take it down and that'll be that.

[BrotherLovesDub]

Originally Posted by Scott Warner

I mean, what dinosaur is out there these days that doesn't understand the reality of modern music distribution in light of the Internet these days?

answer: RIAA and everyone they represent.

[patrick]

so you pay a monthly royality thing right now i am guessing? and that goes to the riaa? basically if this thing goes through could you just cut out the 5% of the music that is on a major label and just play independent stuff knowing that they A: want you to play their music, and B: don't have the time, money etc to bother...?